Weekend Poll Watching

This weekend offers several chances for Local Poll teams to impress on the road. Local No. 1 Virginia Tech and Local No. 6 Virginia play at Georgia Tech and Clemson, respectively, combined home record of 21-1. Local No. 3 George Washington (5-1 in the Atlantic 10) plays at Rhode Island (6-1); the winner will be in sole possession of first place.

Finally, Local No. 4 VCU (9-0 in the CAA) goes to Drexel (7-2). The two teams have the CAA's best RPI's; Drexel is at 46 and still very much in the mix as an at-large, while VCU is at 59 and climbing. No. 1 Washington Post source Jerry Palm has both teams in the NCAA tournament field in his latest bracket, while relentless CAA blogger Michael Litos is thinking it could be another two-bid year for the CAA. Kyle Whelliston is writing long pieces about VCU and the road ahead, while Yoni Cohen is saying VCU should be ranked. The Rams are already 33rd in the AP, and at the minimum will be on the precipice of the Top 25 if they win at Drexel to run their record to 18-3 and 9-0 on the road. Comments on the ranking question follow:

B.A. Walker: We think about the next game, that's the only thing we think about. Being in the top 25 ain't gonna bring us a championship. I'm thinking about a championship, this is my last year, I can't think about anything else. A CAA championship, then we're gonna focus on a national championship.

Jamal Shuler: Yeah, we think about it, we see the polls, the mid-major polls and everything, but in coach's eyes we're not where we need to be, so he stresses that every day. There's still stuff that we need to work on. I just think if we handle our business it may come, it may not. We've just got to keep playing hard.

Anthony Grant, attempting to set a land-record for most sports cliches in one answer, forgetting only the 110 percent one: It's good to hear. That means they're listening. We're nine games into conference play, we're only halfway through, so as a basketball team we just need to continue to understand we've got to take it one game at a time. On any given night anything can happen in this league. You've got very, very good teams, very good competition, and we've just got to continue to maintain our focus and understand, like I tell these guys, one of two things is gonna happen. We're either gonna get better or we're gonna get worse. Nothing's gonna stay the same. Hopefully we'll just continue to grow as a team and understand that there's a lot of games left to be played.

Jim Larranaga: Based on their performance so far, where this is their eighth road game of the year, they're 8-0, the best road record in the country, based on the fact that their record is now 17-3, they should be in the top 25 in both polls and should have been there probably a week or two ago. But now being a voting member of the panel and seeing how difficult it is to decipher between one team and the next, there's 50 teams that belong in the top 25. I'm not sure which ones don't.

Note: None of the particulars so much as mentioned the Local Poll in these discussions. I didn't want to be the first one to bring it up.